Embodiments of the invention relate generally to the fabrication of semiconductor structures and more particularly to the fabrication of compound semiconductor nanostructures and microstructures on substrates having an insulating layer.
Silicon is the basic material for present solid-state electronics, and processing techniques have been evolved for decades. Hence, most electronic integrated circuit devices are based on silicon.
However, III-V compound semiconductors, and especially InGaAs, are being considered as a potential alternative for replacing strained Si in the channel of future nFETs due to their remarkable electron mobility. Moreover, some III-V compound semiconductors present several advantages for opto-electronics applications when compared to Si.
A monolithic integration of compound semiconductors on silicon wafers is desirable and has extensively been investigated in the past. Several problems need to be overcome when compound semiconductors and conventional silicon technologies are be combined. First, there is a large lattice mismatch between a crystalline silicon substrate and compound semiconductor crystals. Further, there is a thermal expansion coefficient mismatch between the (silicon) wafer material and the active compound semiconductor material. Additionally, a structural mismatch between diamond-like structures and zincblende structures may occur. It is an overall goal to achieve high crystalline quality over various monolithic layers for compound semiconductor on a foreign substrate such as silicon.
In an effort to achieve high crystalline quality in crystalline material layers that show a lattice mismatch, several methods have been developed. For example, direct epitaxy of blanket layers allow for a gradual transition from one lattice parameter to the next. However, relatively thick transition layers are needed to reduce the defect density considerably.
Techniques to combine compound semiconductor materials with conventional silicon wafers include bonding techniques. In direct wafer bonding, a compound hetero structure is fabricated on a donor wafer wherein the donor wafer material is eliminated after bonding with the conventional silicon wafer. This makes the bonding technology relatively expensive. Further, bonding is limited to the size of costly compound substrate wafers.
Another approach for combining lattice-mismatched materials such as compound semiconductors with silicon substrates is the aspect ratio trapping approach. Aspect ratio trapping (ART) refers to a technique where crystalline defects are terminated at non-crystalline, for example dielectric, sidewalls. U.S. Pat. No. 8,173,551 B2 discloses a method where a silicon substrate is covered with a dielectric layer defining trenches through to the substrate material. In the trenches, epitaxial films of a compound material are deposited wherein particular geometries of the growth front are realized. The aspect ratio of the trenches needs to be large enough to terminate the defects that nucleate at the silicon-compound interface so that higher parts of the crystalline compound show a low crystalline defect density. Some approaches of the ART technique teach the use of Germanium microcrystals grown in silicon oxide trenches on a silicon substrate with a gallium arsenide film on top.
Another ART approach is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,384,196 B2 employing an additional epitaxial layer overgrowth (ELO) of the trenches. Relatively thick compound semiconductor or germanium layers are obtained on the trench-forming dielectric, and the crystalline compound or germanium is preferably planarized prior to further processing.
It is therefore desirable to provide improved fabrication methods for semiconductor structures, in particular for structures comprising semiconductor compound materials.